The Remaining
by Fall of an Empire
Summary: It's been twenty years since the outbreak. Their goal each day is to survive to see another.


**A/N **This is my last of us au i hope you enjoy.

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**The Remaining**

He scanned over the front page of a newspaper dated twenty years ago, even with its age he could still make out the picture of a clicker. _Nobody was ready for the horrors of an incurable epidemic that turned others into real life nightmares_; he thought.

The infection split the skull and grew out of the forehead into a hard flower, blinding the creature forcing it to use echolocation to hunt. It made them absolutely terrifying. Nobody goes toe to toe with them and survives, not even his father could change that fact. He shook the memory from his mind and tossed the paper onto an empty store shelf.

"Well bud this place was a bust… there's nothing left here." Hiccup sighed as he walked through the empty rows of metal shelving. The German shepherd napping at the front door shifted his gaze to his friend.

"Let's go Toothless, it's getting late and we still need check the traps… maybe we got lucky for once." The dog rose to his feet, stretching his legs while giving a low whine of approval.

Hiccup stepped out of the abandoned pharmacy into the afternoon daylight with Toothless by his side. Looking around at the empty streets were the remains of cars and buildings, but for the most part, Mother Nature had reclaimed the town. He removed the shotgun from the sling on his shoulder and started down the empty main street.

Twenty minutes later he had made it to an old wooden bridge looking down at the lumber mill below. Hiccup turned towards the dirt trail leading down the hillside when the loud crack of gun shots broke the silence. A sense of fear crashed over him like a wave, no one was supposed to be here. He glanced at Toothless before running down the muddy path.

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"I told you, don't fucking touch me!" Astrid screamed, looking back at the three bodies on the warehouse floor. She winced at the pain in her ribs, clutching her side as she crawled over to the pistol that had fallen between her and her attackers. As she grabbed the weapon she noticed the slide was locked open. "Just fucking great. Who carries an empty gun?" She slowly and painfully brought herself to her feet and limped to the nearest body.

Astrid slowly rolled the body to its front, allowing her to slip the military backpack from the dead man's shoulders. She set the pack aside, moving to the next body, leaning over to remove the empty gun holster from the woman's hip. _This will be useful,_ she thought as she attached it to her belt. She searched over the last body but found nothing of value.

She gimped back to where she had set the backpack, Pain shot through her side as she sat down, her hand pressed firmly against her badly bruised ribs. She looped her fingers through one of the straps of the pack dragging it to her. Astrid proceeded to dump its contents out on the concrete before her, scanning through its contents.

Astrid sighed. "Great thanks for nothing." She threw the bag against the wall and dropped her head into her hands. Something wet caught the back of her hand. The rough feeling of a warm tongue sent chills crawling up her spine.

"Oh my god!" she squealed backing away from the dog that had interrupted her moment of peace. The large dog tilted his head to the side and whimpered before slowly moving towards her again. Astrid slowly put her hand out for him, letting him adjust to her before he tackled her, covering her face in dog drool.

"Get off me!" she grunted shoving the dog away from her. The German shepherd gave a low dejected whine before retreating towards the door. A figure in the doorway startled her when it reached out from the darkness to pat the dog's side. She must have missed him during the brawl.

He slowly reached out to pet the dog. "He likes you."

Astrid jumped to her feet. "Don't come near me," she snarled, "or you will end up like your buddies over there!" She drew her gun from its holster threateningly, eyes fixated directly on him.

"Easy...easy. You're hurt." He kneeled down slowly and laid the shotgun he was holding on the ground to show he meant no harm. "Let me help you."

"I don't need your help, and what are you doing here?" Astrid chided.

He looked at her and sighed. "I'm doing the same thing you're doing …surviving." The dog nuzzled his palm giving a low whine." Look you have every reason not to trust me," he nodded towards the bodies, "but I can help you, i have medical supplies if you would let me grab my pack "

"You need to go right now." Astrid pointed to the door he came through. "I told you I don't need your help, I can take care of myself just fine without you trying to _save _me."

"Ok, i'll leave you to whatever this is." he replied, and without another word he walked back into the dark hallway with his dog chasing behind him.

She sighed, putting the gun back into the newly acquired holster when she noticed the shotgun he'd been carrying still sitting where he had left it. "Idiot," Astrid whispered while walking to her backpack before picking up the gun and exiting through the same door he had.

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"Oh god what am I doing, this is so stupid… she told me she didn't need my help!" He groaned, pacing back and forth, wearing a path in the grass on the hill above the mill. "But if I don't follow her she won't survive the night." Hiccup brought his hand up to palm his face before sighing heavily. "Fuck it, we're going after her." Toothless watched him sling his backpack over his shoulders before joining his friend on the march back down the hill.

Darkness had crept into the valley as Hiccup and Toothless reached the door he had previously exited. _I doubt she's still in there, not with the possibility of people still after her, _he thought to himself. "Where is she bud?" Toothless sniffed the ground walking in a large circle before trotting off towards a pair of rusted railroad tracks. Hiccup jogged to keep up with toothless as he moved at a brisk pace down the tracks.

Hiccup and Toothless came to a halt when the railroad tracks ended abruptly. Hiccup peered over the edge of the drop at the remains of an old bridge that was partially submerged in the river below. "Well, where to now, bud? I don't think she's dumb enough to try to swim across." Toothless started circling again with his nose pressed hard to the ground trying to find any trace of her scent.

Hiccup stepped to the edge of the concrete base before sitting and throwing his legs over the side. He sat there quietly thinking of how he could have played the earlier situation better. Toothless staggered over to him nuzzling his face. "Yeah, I don't know what to do either," he mumbled, grabbing a stone and throwing it into the rushing water below. It was later now, the sun was completely gone. Thankfully he had the light of a full moon.

_It's too late to go back to the safe house, _he thought as he tossed another rock bouncing off the steel girders of the bridge below before plopping into the water. He let out a long sigh before standing up, taking one last look at the fallen bridge and rushing water before whistling for toothless. "Toothless!" he called before whistling again.

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Astrid perched herself on the concrete base of an old bridge and wrapped her arms around herself shivering slightly as the chill of the night settled in. The wetness of her cheeks shone brightly in the moonlight, the memories of friends and family that had been stolen from her playing like movie in her mind. Something cold nudged the back of her hand pulling her back to the harsh reality of her situation. Glancing down, her gaze caught the soft brown eyes of the dog that had tried to comfort her earlier.

"What are you doing here?" Astrid muttered reaching down to touch the soft fur around his neck. He brought his front paws up to rest on the concrete, nuzzling her cheek. Astrid let out a small laugh as his rough tongue slid across the smooth surface of her face. "Why are you so friendly?" She chuckled, giving his chin a good scratch which earned her a few more licks to the face. Astrid slowly eased down from her spot carefully working her way next to Toothless, before scratching him behind the ear. "So am I supposed to follow you back to him?" she asked looking into those brown eyes for an answer.

"Actually, I think he wanted me to find you," came a voice behind her.

The sudden break in the silence startled her, she drew her pistol, bringing him into the sights. "Why do you keep following me?" Astrid growled, heart racing with adrenaline as she chastised herself for letting her guard down enough for him to sneak up on her for the second time today. She fought to slow the rapid beating of her heart and set her jaw to hide the terror she felt.

"Does every conversation with you require a gun in my face?" he grumbled before dropping down onto the soft clay of the river bank.

"You didn't answer the question. Why are you following me?" her voice growing colder as she tightened her grip on the gun.

He looked to her sighing heavily. "My name is Hiccup… aaand I followed you to make sure you would be safe."

"I'm Astrid," she mumbled as she watched Hiccup's posture soften in the moonlight. "...And I don't need you, or anyone else to keep me safe!"

"Well it's nice to finally meet someone who doesn't want to kill me," Hiccup chuckled, his hand running down the back of his neck.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, just because I haven't killed you already doesn't mean I won't!" she responded. His face shone in the moonlight enough that she could see the shadow of freckles dusting his face.

"Damn it's cold. Would you mind if I started a fire, because I would hate to make it this far just to die from exposure." Hiccup teased.

"What do you mean this far?"

He could see the look of puzzlement on her face as he gathered some dry wood from the bank around them. "Sorry, I meant that as, 'we've survived this long,'" he replied. Hiccup stacked the wood the way his father taught him and reached for his backpack, pulling out his striker and piece of flint. Soon the flames were chasing the cold away. Hiccup being satisfied with his work began putting his tools away.

"Where did you get this stuff?" she sighed, relenting a little as she felt the warmth of the fire washing over her.

"If you look long enough you can find a lot of things, you just need to be patient," he replied.

Astrid scoffed, "it's hard to be patient when people are trying to kill you."

"That's a different set of circumstances," Hiccup retorted from inside his backpack. "You do realize we can't sleep out here, right?"

"Who said anything about sleeping with you?" Astrid glared at him. "I never even agreed to join you with... whatever it is you are doing" She gestured towards Hiccup and Toothless as though they were crazy.

"Ok… that came out wrong," he conceded again, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Ya think?" Astrid snapped as she moved closer to fire soaking in more of the heat.. .

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Hiccup stammered, "I was gonna suggest finding a safer place to sleep than out here in the open. You know…. the kinda place where hunters and clickers won't kill you in your sleep."

Astrid let out a long sigh, "let's say I do follow you, how do I know that you won't kill me... or worse?"

"Because there are more important things to worry about than me. Besides you killed three people all on your own, I wouldn't stand a chance."

"Just remember if you try anything, the last thing going through your mind will be a bullet." She hoped the threat would be enough, but just incase she pulled the gun from its holster and carried it. _What am I doing? I don't know him. Hell, I didn't even get his name,_ she thought to herself.

The walk through town was eerie and silent. Anything could be waiting for them. "So this place of yours, how do you know it's safe?" her voice trembling slightly. Her heart was racing everytime she looked into the darkness of an empty alley way or broken windows of empty stores. "You know that clickers can still find us in the dark, right? Why are we not trying to be a little more... oh I don't know, stealthy?"

"You worry too much," Hiccup joked, stopping in front of a large ornate iron gate. "We will be safe here." As he walked through the gates onto the crumbling concrete driveway, it dawned on him that she wasn't following. "Are you coming?" Hiccup called out.

"I think I found something," she replied. Astrid had caught a glimpse of a green and gold sign hidden by an overgrown bush. Using her hand she pushed the bush aside, the thorns digging into her skin. "Haddock Residence," she mumbled to herself before she turned to follow him, his dog trotting beside her.


End file.
